A trend for electronic equipment is lighter weight and lower cost. Lighter weight electronic equipment is especially important for aerospace applications, such as Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (“AESAs”) or other types of antennas. Antennas, especially thin membrane type antennas, often have significant power dissipation due to the type of electronic components involved. It is important to control the thermal gradients and temperature of these systems to not only ensure adequate operation but to increase capabilities of antenna systems. For example, space-based antennas often use metal plates having high thermal conductivity to spread the heat because these antennas are ultimately cooled by radiation. But these metal plates increase the mass of the antenna systems.